Religious groups and academics are protesting the potential appointment of a Protestant Supreme Court nominee who once called a devastating earthquake “God’s warning” and has asked people appearing in his court to pray for reconciliation.

If confirmed, Kim Shin and three other Supreme Court candidates would replace four outgoing judges, whose six-year terms end in July. The National Assembly began confirmation hearings today.

“His reflecting his own beliefs on duty is the wrong attitude for a public officer who should keep one’s private and public life separate,” said Jesuit Father Thomas Lee Jong-jin,  a professor at Sogang University.

In a 2002 book, Kim wrote “an earthquake is God’s warning,” referring to a temblor that killed 20,000 people in India that same year.

In 2009, Kim overturned a lower court decision and ruled that a Protestant pastor did not have to pay taxes on his house, which his opponents argue is another sign of his bias. Kim also served as the president of a Protestant association for public officers from 2009-2010, when he said he would devote Busan, the nation's second-largest city, to God.

Kim Shin’s religious views are incompatible with the role of a Supreme Court justice, the Korea Youth Buddhist Association said yesterday.

The opposition United Democratic Party told journalists that Kim has violated the constitution, which says, “Judges shall rule independently according to their conscience” by having continuously ruled in favor of Christianity.

Kim refuted these allegations in a statement yesterday that said, “As a judge, I have not decided just in favor of people of a certain religion.” He said the comment about the earthquake was "immature," and that he "did not understand fully the agony of earthquake victims.”

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